Improvement



trill new and useful Method of Treating or is always a considerable percentage of naph- Baurne, there begins to come over an oil UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RUFUS S. MERRILL, OF CAMBRIDGE, ASSIGNOR TO WILLIAM B. MERRILL AND JOSHUA MERRILL, OF

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

lMPROVEM'ENT IN THE PRODUCTION OF LIGHT FROM HEAVYVHYDBO QAB B ONS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 100,9 L5, dated March 15, 1870.

To all whom it may concern: y

Be it known that 1, Burns S. MERRILL, of

Cambridge, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a cer- Using certain. Heavy Oils, obtained from the distillation of coal, petroleum, shale, schist, &e.,. for burning and illuminating purposes; and I hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and: exact-description of the same.

Itis well known to those skilled in the art of distilling petroleum and oil produced from coal, shale, and schist, that when either of these substances is subjected to distillation, a great difference exists in their respective boiling-points, and in the production of the various oils and spirits-thatcome over during the-process of distillation. And, first, there tha, or volatile spirit, varying in gravity and boiling-point, some of it being so volatile that it is difficult to condense it by ordinary means. These spirits are termed. naphthas, or ben-' zoles, and usua'lly;embrace the portion com i'ng over between 85 and 60 Bau-ms scale. They are ioolight, volatile, and dangerous to be generally used for burning in lamps, and are principally used for paint, varnish-making, and, for carbureting atmospheric air for automatic gas-machines, the article soused being known as gasoline. After the naphthas have been distilled off, down, say, to 60 more fixed in character andof higher boilingpoint, (and when distilled from petroleum, such as is ordinarily obtained from the wells in Pennsylvania,) which oil is used as an illuminating-oil, and is burned in lamps provided with fiat or round wick kerosene-burners, and it constitutes from fifty to seventy per centum of the products of distillation. In other words, when the distillation is continued from 60. Baum to about 40 Baume, the light, thin oil that comes over between these degrees Baum is about sixty per cent. of the petroleum from which the naphtha has been removed.

These oils have been universally used for burningin lamps for illuminating purposes,

and are so well known under the name of re fined petroleum or kerosene oil that they need no description.

After the oil running from the condenser has reached about sixty per cent of the oil put into the still, theoil begins to come over thicker in body, and it contains large quantities of paraffine; and if the distillation be continued rapidly, this oil comes over so heavy in gravity and thick in body that it is unsuitable to be mixed with the thin oils before named for burning purposes. This oil is known to the trade as heavy oil, and is used universally as lubricating-oil for machinery. After this oil is chilled, and strained or pressed in suitable bags for the removal of the solid par-affine, it has, in some instances, been mixed with naphthas and again distilled, in order to make a cheap burning-oil; but such mixtures are poor inquality, and much more dangerous to burn in ordinary kerosenelamps, the naphtha portions with which it is distilled, combining with the heavy oil, being so volatile that when the lamps become heated they are set free and very liable to ignite, thus causing serious accidents to life and property.

Oils made from petroleum and coal, shale, and schist have been burned in Argand and similar lamps, Whensuch oils have been sodistilled as to simply remove those portions that are readily removed by steam, or by boiling water put in the stillwith the petroleum or. coal-oil. The quantity removed usually varies from ten to fifteen per centum in coal and shale oil. When heated by steamthat is, by simply steaming the oil-the amount of light products that can be removed is, with coal and shale, from ten to fifteen, per cent., and from petroleum, from fifteen to twenty-five per cent. The whole of the remaining portion of oil will burn poorly in Argand or Buttonlamps.

1 am not aware that any attempt has ever been made to burn in lamps, and for illuminating purposes, the heavy oils--that is,,nils which represent only the last twenty-five to forty per cent. of the distillates of coal, shale,

and petroleum oils. The heavy oil is rich in.

carbon, but will not burn in the ordinary lamps, such as are used for burning kerosenebadly as to be entirely impracticable as an arranged so as to heat the burning material functions described. Nor do I claim in this oil; it crusts the wick at once, and smokes so illuminating material.

I have discovered that when that portion of the distillates of coal, shale, and petroleum oil weighing heavier thanBS Baum is collected in suitable. tanks and is chilled, and iJ-hG'SOliil parafline removed from it by wellknown processes, (the oil, after chilling and pressing, usually weighs about from 28 to 36. Baum at 60 Fahrenheit, and is heavy and oily in body, having also a. very high distilling-point, nearly 600. =Fahrenheit,) the oil so obtained can be burned continuously in a lamp, and with a wick, and produce a brilliant, white, and beautiful flame, under the following conditions combined, to wit:

First, the oil must be maintained, while burning, at a temperature of from 100 to 250Fahrenheit. At this temperature the oil acquires suflicient fluidity to ascend the wick by its capillary action.

Second, the wick should be cylindrical, or so shaped as to produce a circular or otherwise equivalent flame, whether continuous or not.

Third, theremust be an artificial draft, so as to supply atmospheric air to the flame, both internally and externally. 7

I do not, in this patent, claim any particular apparatus. Indeed, any lamp which is in its reservoir, whether by heat applied to lie-vessel frem without-or from within e., y transmission of the heat generated by the burner itself, and is provided with a round or equivalent wick-tube, and with appliances to produce an internal and external draft-, will, more or less, answer the purpose, according to the arrangement and particular adaptation of the devices for producing the patent that the means described are new in a lamp, either separately or combined; but what I have discovered is, the new application of aknown substance or material, (the oil,,) or-t-he application of a known substance or material, to a new purpose, and also the new application of old means to an old substance, to produce a new and beneficial result from it never heretofore attained. Thus, the burning of this oil, which has never been used for illuminating purposes, in the old solarlamp, in which nothing but lard, or sperm,

or whale oils were used, assuming that the solar lamps contain-and embrace 'all the means to bring about the necessary conditions hereinbefore specified, is such a new application of a known substance, and also such a new application of old means, as constitutes my discovery, and is contemplated to be protected by this patent.

Among other advantages attending the use of this oil as a'burning fluid is, thatit is so fixed, having an igniting-point about 300.

Fahrenheit, that it is perfectly safe, and free from-all danger of explosion, orsueh accidents ton,'is ofso fixed a character that it will not ignite until heated toa temperature of 400 Fahrenheit. This oil is as safe to use in railroad-cars, factories, and other places as the best sperm-oil, and perfectly free from tendency to explode-a source .of great destruc tion of life and property.

In many States the use of kerosene-oil as an illuminating material is prohibited by law in railroad-cars, owing to its inflammable character, which, in case of accident to the cars, at once involves .the passengers in great danger of being burned. The heavy oil de scribed is so safe that it would not ignite an y. more than sperm or lard oil and if the lamp s should be thrown down'in which it was burningfand the oil become spilled, it would not catch -fire,hutthe flame would he imme. diately extinguished by the fall of the lamp.

Having thus fully described my discovery, and the manner-in which thesame is or may be carried into practical operation, I would state my claim as follows:

The burning, for illuminating purposes, and in the manner herein shown and set forth, of the latter products of distillation of coal, shale, and petroleum, having a density of not more than 38 Baum, land being known as heavy oil-that is to say, heating said oil, and drawing it up around the'hollow or equivalently-formed wick, and subjecting it, at the burning-point, to an artificial draft of atmospheric air, both within and without the wick.

In testimony whereof I have signed myname to this specification before two subscribing witnesses.

. RUFUS S.- MERRILL.

VVitnessesp A. PoLLoK, M. BAILEY. 

